It is known to remove the juices from agricultural products by various methods, such as pressing. After removal of such juices, by-products or “pomace” from the agricultural product remains and often is discarded. Pomace is a mixture of fruit or vegetable remnants, e.g., the seeds, the stems, the skins and pulp. However, valuable nutritional components, such as polyphenols, remain in the pomace. Pomace may have “press-aid” mixed in with the pomace. Press aid, often shredded paper, is added to the pomace so that during pressing the pomace has a surface to press against to aid in extraction of juice.
Various processes have been developed to extract juice and nutritional components from pomace. Such known processes include, for example, using alcohol or mixtures of alcohol and water as a solvent to extract compounds from the pomace. Another known process is counter-current extraction in which pomace is extracted by using a device to push the pomace against a current flow of water thereby extracting the valuable compounds by diffusion. However, such known methods require organic solvents and/or do not efficiently extract the valuable compounds from the pomace.